ON STAGE. THEATER & MUSIC. SUBURBAN STAGES.

Borealis in full farce with `The Play's the Thing'

July 04, 2003|By H. Lee Murphy, Special to the Tribune.

Theatergoers in the far western suburbs have doubtless been wondering what happened to the Aurora-based Borealis Theatre Company, which has been dark over the past year. As it turns out, obituaries have proven premature, for the group is set to re-emerge this month with a revival of the Molnar farce "The Play's the Thing" in its regular home at Aurora University.

For a dozen years Borealis presented its Fox Valley Shakespeare Festival each summer. But last year the group had to cancel a planned production of "Henry IV, Part I" when it came up short in its effort to cast the big historical play, so this year Jeffrey Baumgartner, the producing artistic director, decided to stage a smaller work while Borealis regroups after its long hiatus.

So what happened last season, when the company went dark?

Baumgartner, who founded the group in 1990 and directs most of its shows, decided he needed some time off to try acting in independent productions again. He took a role in a revival of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" at the Theatre Building in Chicago last October, then acted in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," presented by Reverie Theatre at Stage Left in December. All the while, he continued to teach classes at Aurora University in his role as theater artist-in-residence.

"I needed to switch gears for awhile," Baumgartner explains. "Professionally my goal was to do some work in Chicago and get some fresh creative nourishment."

Meanwhile, there was nobody else to take over Borealis, which cancelled its season. The group's longtime home, Perry Theatre, will itself go dark soon: a 10-month remodeling and enlargement of the 180-seat performing space commences in August. Baumgartner intends to return Borealis to a regular schedule of three plays a season starting in the fall, with each show likely to be staged at New England Congregational Church's smaller Source Theatre (just 50 seats) on Aurora's west side.

Baumgartner's larger goal is to take Borealis beyond Aurora. He is seeking a theater in Chicago for "The Play's the Thing," and in fact hopes to transfer his entire cast and set for a second run of the play sometime in the fall. "The hard part will be finding the right performing space in the city for this," he says.

The Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar, who did his most important work in the post-World War I era, has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years. The Court Theatre in Chicago revived "The Play's the Thing" in the mid-1990s. Baumgartner first encountered the work in April, when he guest-directed a student production at Northern Illinois University.

For the current show he's hired a professional cast (featuring Baumgartner, who also directs, and Richard Westphal, John Westby, Lacy Coil and Glenn Proud) but is borrowing the NIU scenery and props.

The play, with an English adaptation by P.G. Wodehouse, had its New York premiere in 1926 and is a sophisticated comedy about illicit love affairs and the wildly funny plots that cover them up. "Molnar has married the genres of romanticism and cynicism in this play," Baumgartner observes. "It's all done with such great wit that it reminds you of the best writing of Noel Coward."

- On the subject of vintage comedy, the Janus Theatre is presenting the 18th Century French play by Pierre Marivaux, "Changes of Heart," in a translation by Stephen Wadsworth with Sean Hargadon directing. It Featuring a cast that includes Michael Henry, Kaitiecq Mayberry and Kelly Ann Page, the play opens July 11 and runs through July 26 outdoors in the amphitheater at North School Park, 410 N. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights. Call 847-931-7247.